Three students recount what they heard and saw when a 21st-birthday party turned tragic early Tuesday. A fourth-floor balcony they were crowded on collapsed with a sharp crack, spilling 13 people about 50 feet onto the pavement in Berkeley. Six people were killed and seven seriously injured.

Five of the dead were 21-year-olds from Ireland who were in the country on so-called J-1 visas that enable young people to work and travel in the U.S. over the summer, while the sixth victim was from California, authorities said.

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Police had gotten a complaint about a loud party in the apartment about an hour before the accident but had not yet arrived when the balcony gave way just after 12:30 a.m., spokesman Byron White said. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said police told him 13 people were on the balcony.

Students Sinead Loftus, Yan Shi and Xueyao Song recount the tragic balcony collapse in Berkeley: